


Cat Nap

by thirty2flavors



Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Pre-Relationship, brief appearances from fiona and the rest of the gang, mid-episode 3 roadtrip, sasha's asleep the whole time so...
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-28
Updated: 2018-07-28
Packaged: 2019-06-17 11:16:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 871
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15460161
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thirty2flavors/pseuds/thirty2flavors
Summary: Sasha had fallen against him when the caravan turned, her head nestled neatly under his arm, sound asleep against his chest.Oh, shit.





	Cat Nap

**Author's Note:**

> @corporatestooge posted [some adorable art](https://corporatestooge.tumblr.com/post/176350824202/take-this-little-rhysha-sketch-as-proof-im-still) and this happened. Written very hastily on vacation in a stolen couple hours.

“Hey, Fiona.” 

Chin drooped down and eyes shut, Fiona didn’t react. Neither did Sasha, fast asleep right beside her, or Athena, snoozing on the other end, or poor Vaughn, frozen in paralysis in the centre of the booth. 

Hands folded across his chest, Rhys scowled impatiently. 

“ _Fiona_ ,” he hissed again, to no avail. 

It was Fiona’s turn to drive, before Rhys himself fell asleep at the wheel and sent them all to a fiery death in the ass end of nowhere. Having to wake Fiona up was an unappealing prospect, but accidentally waking either of the other two women seemed flat-out dangerous. 

Eyes narrowed, he knocked her boot with his. 

“Huh?” Fiona woke with a snort, shaking her hair from her face and blinking at him in wide-eyed confusion. 

“Your turn.” He jabbed a thumb towards the driver’s seat of the caravan. 

Fiona groaned and scrubbed at her eyes. “What’s happening?” 

“To drive?” he answered, increasingly impatient every additional second he remained awake. “Your turn.”

“Oh.” She rubbed her face again. “Mmmkay.”

She slid out of the booth and pushed past him, stretching and yawning and cracking her back as she went. Too sleepy to bicker with him—now that was a feat.

Rhys took Fiona’s vacated seat eagerly, closing his eyes the second he sat down, legs sticking out straight beneath the table. The last stretch of his drive had been brutally boring, combining with general fatigue to create a sense of exhaustion Rhys typically associated with last-minute school projects, crunch-time work deadlines and poor-tasting energy drinks. 

He let his head rest back against the booth.

The caravan rumbled and jolted as Fiona started driving, but its poor suspension was easily ignored in favour of sleep. Finally being able to relax—even if it was in a caravan full of other people in a bench that desperately needed to be reupholstered—felt like sinking into a jacuzzi. Slumped in the booth, he settled in as best he could, already half-asleep.

Then Fiona turned a corner, something warm landed on his chest, and Rhys groaned in quiet displeasure. With an arm raised to shove off the intruder, Rhys cracked open one eye. 

Then he froze.

Sasha had fallen against him when the caravan turned, her head nestled neatly under his arm, sound asleep against his chest.

Oh, shit. 

Rhys felt like he’d downed three cans of energy boosters from the Helios cafeteria. He glanced frantically from the top of Sasha’s head to the back of the driver’s seat where Fiona sat.

 _Oh, shit,_ Rhys thought again, brain running on fumes as it tried to process his predicament. It felt like a checkmate, with every possible move leading to certain death. 

Sasha would be angry if he woke her up. She would also probably be disgusted to learn she’d slept on Rhys, of all people. And that was to say nothing of Fiona, who would almost certainly get the wrong impression and even more certainly be ready to murder him for it. 

“Uhhhh.” He spoke as quietly as he could while still technically making sound, and gave Sasha’s shoulder the tiniest of nudges with his pinky finger. “S-Sasha?” 

Sasha didn’t move. 

Rhys stayed stock still, fully awake for the first time in hours. 

One of Rhys’ old boyfriends had a cat. The cat’s favourite habit—when it wasn’t terrorizing Rhys with scratches and furious hissing—was to trap victims in uncomfortable positions beneath it while it had a nap. Rhys remembered sacrificing countless limbs to pins and needles in an attempt to win boyfriend stock. 

He sent another panicked glance to the front of the caravan. Fiona was focused on the road, oblivious to the situation unfolding feet away.

“Sasha,” he tried again, “I…”

Sasha started to snore. Rhys gulped. 

She seemed so peaceful, was the thing. For all her smooth jokes and self-assured confidence, Sasha in her waking hours was a livewire, a tightly-coiled spring ready to pop at any threat. A lifetime on Pandora would do that to a person. To wake her when she’d finally settled down just felt… wrong. Cruel, even. Like pushing that damn cat off his lap when it was finally showing him some affection. 

He took one last, furtive look over at Fiona and sighed. 

Besides—as causes of deaths on Pandora went, he supposed this was about as pleasant as one could hope for. Unlike the cat, at least Sasha wasn’t kneading claws into his thighs or tearing pinprick holes in his new jeans. 

With a wordless, sleepy mumble, Sasha nuzzled even closer. Rhys’ heart beat out a samba. Slowly, cautiously, gingerly, he lowered his hand from the air, resting it behind her on the booth. 

The caravan took another turn in the opposite direction. (“Sorry!” called Fiona from the front, lifting one hand from the wheel in apology.) Sasha rolled the other way, curling up against the booth, freeing Rhys from beneath her.

Rhys blinked. Something like disappointment reared its confusing head within his chest, and he gave his head a shake to swat it away. That had solved his problem neatly. He crossed his arms and slouched down further, shutting his eyes again. 

It took him another twenty minutes to fall asleep.

**Author's Note:**

> say hi on tumblr: [@oodlyenough](http://oodlyenough.tumblr.com/)


End file.
